Box office: Chef sees a disaster of a start

By Joginder Tuteja

, Oct 7, 2017 - 2:37 pm IST

One did not expect a major opening for Saif Ali Khan‘s starrer Chef. In fact it was predicted that the opening numbers would be in the region of Rs. 3 to 4 crore. Note that this would have been a great number but still given the fact that the film wasn’t really seeing universal appeal this would have been a fair beginning before word of mouth kicked in. However what actually happened in theatres was nothing less than shocking as there were practically no footfalls whatsoever. The situation was bleak in the morning and there was no turnaround towards the evening shows either. That pretty much sealed the feat for the film since from this point on it was always going to be really tough.

No wonder, the collections stood at mere Rs. 1.05 crore which is disastrous to say the least. Not just are these the lowest numbers ever for a Saif Ali Khan film, these are also the minimum numbers amongst even those films which have turned out to be disasters in 2017. The trade, industry as well as veterans from the business of films are shocked to see the manner in which things have unfolded in theatres to have these numbers below even the likes of Bhoomi and Simran which says a lot about how the film has been rejected in a big way. It is quite apparent that audiences were just not interested to check out what the film had to offer and hence they did not even bother to step in theatres.

As I have said repeatedly in the past too, it is one thing to have a film being rejected by the audience and the other to be totally ignored. Ask any filmmaker and it is the latter behaviour that is more dreadful.

No wonder, for director Raja Krishna Menon it is nothing less than heartbreaking to see his Airlift do so very well in January last year and then suffer a huge low in just about 20 months down the line with Chef.